A single day Private Autumn Tour in North Norfolk. It was drizzling inland first thing, but dry when we got to the coast. After a cloudy morning, it started to brighten up but before we got lulled into thinking we could shed our coats there were a couple of very sharp rain showers early afternoon too.
As we met in Wells this morning, we paid a quick visit to Wells Woods first. There were quite a lot of Blackbirds, plus a few Redwings and Song Thrushes in the trees, presumably having arrived from Scandinavia overnight. A Fieldfare and a couple of small flocks of Chaffinches flew over calling. A very tame Goldcrest feeding in the birches right over our heads was also probably a fresh migrant.
We hadn’t found any of the tit flocks before we got to the far side of the Dell but news came through that the Dusky Warbler was still present at Walsey Hills. As this was a particular target for today, we made our way back to the car park and headed straight over there.
The Dusky Warbler is particularly secretive, and in an area which is difficult to view, but it can be seen with a bit of patience. We had to wait a while – about an hour and a half in total. There was a Yellow-browed Warbler which made a couple of circuits through the trees while we waited. Then the Dusky Warbler called and came up into the tops of the willows where we watched it feeding. Not good for photos but some nice views.
The second target for the day was Lapland Bunting. There had been a few along the coast in the last week, mostly just seen flying over. A couple had been seen a few days ago out on the shingle by the beach, so we decided to try our luck there. As we walked out along the East Bank, we could see three Whooper Swans distantly in the fields south of the coast road with lots of Pink-footed Geese. A heavy shower came in off the North Sea now and we had to hurry on to the Richardson Shelter before we got too wet.
While it rained, we spent some time scanning Arnold’s Marsh. There was a nice selection of waders here, including a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper with the Dunlin, a couple of Knot and a single Grey Plover. Then the sun came out and we headed on to the beach. There was a little bit of movement offshore – most notably four Brent Geese coming in and some distant larks arriving. Several Razorbills were on the water.
We could see another shower coming in off the sea but we hoped it might just miss us. However, we were wrong. As we walked east along the inner edge of the old shingle bank we found ourselves getting rained on again! Thankfully it didn’t last long and when the sun came out again we figured we would quickly dry out once more.
The rain possibly did us a favour, as we noticed a small bird fly up and chase round after a couple of Meadow Pipits. It landed on the fence out in the middle of the grazing marshes and we could instantly see it was a Lapland Bunting. The Meadow Pipits landed too, presumably come up out of the now wet grass to dry off. A bit distant, but nice views in the scope. We could see the Lapland Bunting was an adult in non-breeding plumage, with bright rusty collar.
They flew around chasing again and landed much closer. After more time on the fence, the Lapland Bunting now dropped down to feed on the short grass. Better views now in the scope. How lucky was that? The two big targets for the day acquired. We noticed a message now that an adult Pomarine Skua was apparently flying our way offshore, so we raced up to the top of the shingle. We immediately spotted a skua coming towards us, just as predicted, but unfortunately this was an adult Arctic Skua – we never did figure out what happened to the Pomarine.
Mission accomplished, we started to walk back. We hadn’t gone far when a Lapland Bunting ran out of the vegetation just a couple of metres in front of us. We froze but we were too close and it flew. It didn’t look to have gone far though so we walked very slowly on round the edge of the grass and poppies and sure enough found it again further up. A young bird this time, not the same as the adult we had seen earlier. It was incredibly tame and very close again but didn’t seem at all worried by us this time, probably as we didn’t surprise it. Stunning views.
Eventually, we managed to get round past this Lapland Bunting without disturbing it and set off back to the East Bank. We hadn’t gone far before another bird flew up out of the grass right in front of us – a Jack Snipe! We watched it fly off over the bank towards Arnold’s Marsh.
After the weather breaks and then all the distractions, we were very late getting back for lunch. Very pleased with a good morning’s work though. We sat in the picnic area by the Visitor Centre in the sunshine. We could see at least six Cattle Egrets distantly with the cows and a couple of Avocets on Pat’s Pool were new for the day.
We still had time for one more stop this afternoon and it was a toss-up between going to try to see the Barred Warbler at Blakeney or to look for a Red-flanked Bluetail that had just been found in Wells Woods (well to the west of where we were earlier). We decided to do the latter, not least because we were heading back to Wells anyway.
By the time we got to Wells Beach Car Park, there were updates that the Bluetail had not been seen again, after it was initially found. Still we walked out to where it had been and found lots of people looking. We had a walk through the trees, and did find another Yellow-browed Warbler with a large mixed flock of Long-tailed Tits and other birds.
Then it was time to call it a day. And what an exciting Autumn Migration day it had been!
